The Problem with Those “Justice for Cannon” Posts

If you’ve been on social media, you’ve probably been seeing an awful lot of “Justice for Cannon” posts out there, about a white child named Cannon Hinnant allegedly murdered by a Black assailant, which very deliberately point out the races of each. See for example, this story for context on the crime itself:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/15/us/north-carolina-boy-killed-father-speaks-trnd/index.html

Let’s be clear, first of all: It’s heartbreaking that this family lost their child. Cannon Hinnant was his family’s pride and joy, and was as innocent as innocent can be. But the same cannot be said for those who are ghoulishly using his tragedy to further their own agenda — cynically co-opting the family’s personal tragedy to make irrational attacks on Black Lives Matter and the movement for racial justice.

Some of these memes allege that Cannon was shot “just for being white.” There is no evidence that this is true, and in fact, Cannon’s father, Austin Hinnant, has stated on record that race was not a factor in his son’s death. Many other memes explicitly compare Cannon’s death with that of George Floyd, whose murder at the hands of law enforcement officers helped catalyze the current protests against racism and police brutality. These memes include the statement that Floyd was a “violent criminal” — a reference to Floyd’s convictions long before his fatal encounter with police and a common talking point used to discredit the Black Lives Matter movement, even though it doesn’t explain or excuse the brutal police treatment that publicly killed him. They complain that the media has given so much attention to the “criminal” Floyd, while allegedly ignoring the murder of Cannon Hinnant.

The comparisons and implied competition with the justice movement for Black Americans is misguided, and this cartoon included here does a good job explaining why. Law enforcement immediately began a manhunt for Cannon’s killer and apprehended him within 24 hours, and he is in custody right now. And that, in general, is the difference we see in response, urgency, and justice between a White victim and a Black victim.

Three months went by before any charges were filed in the murder of a Black man named Ahmaud Arbery by multiple white assailants, and then only because of protests and mounting pressure. There was initially no commitment to investigate the heinous murder of George Floyd until similar pressure began to mount. There are still no charges against the police department or any officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor, while she was sleeping, during a cocked-up raid of the wrong home. In the case of Elijah McClain, a sweet young Black adult who played his violin for kittens at an animal shelter in his spare time, very little coverage occurred at all of his murder at his hands of police ONE FULL YEAR AGO until Black Lives Matter protests prompted a second look at his case.

These are just a few out of thousands of such cases littering the criminal justice system, in which there is a clear historical pattern of justice moving more slowly for Black people and other people of color — if it moves at all.

Maybe the “Justice for Cannon” folks mean to say that they want more media coverage of the Cannon case. That may seem an understandable reaction until you remember a few other things. First, the murder happened very recently, and media coverage of a case only tends to pick up when there is still no arrest (which there was) or other complications. Second, as pointed out, if there is any pattern to lack of media coverage historically, it has been for Black victims. Third, according to United Nations (UN) data, there were 205,000+ children killed worldwide between 2008–2017. That translates to an astounding 56 children murdered per day.

That’s an overwhelming amount of grief and tragedy. All of these kids had lives that mattered, or should have mattered, and never got to realize whatever dreams they had. Sadly, it simply isn’t possible for the media to cover let alone do justice to all of those stories. Cannon’s story has received coverage from multiple news sources, but it doesn’t seem to be “enough” coverage for those creating and distributing these memes. It doesn’t seem to make much sense to be angry that the media isn’t focusing much more attention on one child, as sad as his case is — especially when there were no complications leading to the fast arrest of the alleged murderer.

Why did those who created and spread the “Justice for Cannon” memes folks pick this one child out of all those hundreds of thousands as deserving of more media attention? Assuming they actually did care about the deaths of all children equally, it seems funny that I haven’t seen “Justice for ____” memes circulating for any of the others — but then again, perhaps those deaths weren’t as convenient to use to tell Black people to shut up.

One of those memes out there shows Cannon with photoshopped wings and a halo, with text juxtaposing the lack of attention he got compared to that “dangerous criminal” George Floyd. It also appropriates social justice language like “say his name.” Another meme drives home its racist point by showing a side by side comparison of Cannon with Floyd looking his worst, accompanied by the obligatory text about Floyd being a convict and “violent criminal.” The message that comes across is clear: look at this sweet innocent white angel, and compare him to this ugly, violent Black monster.

The people sharing those photo memes probably don’t think of themselves as racist. But the funny thing is that the 205,000+ children killed according to the UN during 2008–2017 coincide with the time period of wide usage for social media, and I’ve never seen any of the (mostly, if not entirely white) people currently circulating “Justice for Cannon” memes post pictures of a murdered Black child with photoshopped wings and a halo, crying out for justice. I wonder why?

Many children also die each year from gun violence, including accidentally shooting themselves with a gun stored in the house, or being shot accidentally by a sibling or parent. Others die in mass shootings at schools and public places. The people posting “Justice for Cannon” memes don’t seem interested in making angel memes for these shooting victims, or in calling to actually do something about the glut of guns out there. Very curious. It’s almost as if the righteous outrage they’re participating in follows a political script that they never question or step back and look at — but that couldn’t possibly be true, could it?

We should note the religious aspect, since “angels” as represented in those memes are religious, and specifically Christian. Yes, many of these people think of themselves as Christians. But when I reviewed social media accounts that were posting the “Justice for Cannon” memes, I found that many of the same people posting these “angel” memes were also posting that Kamala Harris is an evil, angry woman who looks like (or possibly is) a man, and circulating false quotes intended to paint her as a dangerous radical. They also promulgated the “birther” argument that she wasn’t from the US, and even revisited the similar theories about Obama, despite his being out of office for nearly 4 years. And they painted all Black Lives Matter protests as being illegitimate and a front for a violent radical takeover of our country, while ignoring any actual discussion of racism, or outright denying that it exists, even while engaging in racist rhetoric.

It should go without saying that these are not the views of all Christians. Many Christians I know, including conservative Christians, fully support the Black Lives Matter movement and recognize that racism exists. And it’s also true that not all of the Cannon memes out there have the religious symbols added, and that not all people circulating these memes have ill intent — they may have a genuine sadness about the murder that leads them to support calls for “justice,” not realizing those calls don’t make as much as sense as the memes claim they do, and not considering the problematic competition being set up with Black justice.

But what can we say about the Christians who explicitly use Cannon’s tragedy as part of a strategy to belittle Black Lives Matter and the life of George Floyd, as well as to spread racist, dehumanizing memes about Kamala Harris and other people of color? The irony is that if these “Christians” were back in 1st century Israel, and encountered a dark-skinned man (as the Jesus of history would have had to be) talking about giving up material possessions and the coming of a judgement against all of the living, they would’ve treated him like every dark-skinned person they see today as a threat to the social order. They would not have given up their possessions to follow him. They would have clung to their possessions even more tightly, and would’ve used any social platforms available to them to denounce him as an agitator and an “evil person.” And they would’ve come out to watch his crucifixion. Hell, they would’ve handed his executioners the fucking nails.

Anyone who genuinely grieves for Cannon Hinnant is entitled to their grief. But we can express that grief without bringing up George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. Those who created these memes chose to politicize the death of a child and use it to score rhetorical points against social movements they do not support. We can recognize a tragedy while also recognizing the real differences in justice across tragedies, and not appropriating the language of social equality movements. We can grieve without exploiting the grief, and we can feel pain without diminishing the pain of others.

Cannon Hinnant was an innocent child. He deserves better than to be used by meme-creators as a wedge to divide people, and a cudgel with which to attack political enemies. We honor him best by honoring what is best in ourselves, by rejecting the racism his death is being made to serve, and by committing to true justice for all people, out of principle rather than convenience.